Christmassy Review :: The Perfect Christmas Gift :: Katie Ginger

I am so delighted to have been part of the blog tour for Katie Ginger’s new Christmas novel The Perfect Christmas Gift, with thanks to HQ Digital – what a fab way to kick off my festive reviews for the year! You can check out a synopsis of the book below, as well as my thoughts on it. Make sure you scroll right to the bottom to see who else is blog touring with me so that you can check them out too!

Bella Moore is excitedly counting down the days to Christmas. That is until she arrives home one evening to find her boyfriend leaving her for another woman. Completely heartbroken, Bella is left wondering if Christmas can still be the same this year.

Next door, Bella’s neighbour Nick is facing his first Christmas as a single dad and doubting whether he can make it the magical time his son Freddie deserves.

Determined to fix both Christmas and their broken hearts, Bella comes up with an idea: a Christmas giving tree for the whole village, where the community can unite and secretly give each other the Christmas presents they truly need.

As Bella becomes chief elf, taking donations and delivering gifts with much-needed help from Nick and Freddie, the two neighbours grow closer and start seeing each other in a whole new light.

But when Nick’s estranged wife returns just before Christmas, is their budding romance over before it’s begun? Or will love be Nick and Bella’s perfect gift this Christmas?

The Perfect Christmas Gift by Katie Ginger – my review

This was a very sweet and very festive Christmas story. It ticks a lot of boxes for things I love to see in my festive reads – a very Christmassy small town/village setting, sweet main characters and a fun range of secondary characters to support them, and a romance that builds in a way that is at least a bit believable.

I really loved Bella and Nick as characters, and the way their relationship grew. I thought that Bella’s idea for a village wishing tree was really sweet, and between that and the mini subplot about some school bullying I found some parts of the book really moving. And it definitely felt festive – the visit to see the decorations in London, the Christmas markets at the park, the scenes where we see Beth and her family preparing for Christmas, and of course the school Christmas play were all chestnut roastingly Christmas swoon worthy.

Something I enjoyed a little bit less about the book was not just the terrible boyfriend leaving Bella (which is a surprisingly regular situation for our Christmas romance protagonists to start their story in, one of my least favourites), but also the amount of time that she spent thinking about and pining after him. I would have loved to have seen more of Bella and Nick together, without going back to the reminders of her terrible ex so often.

Over all this was a pretty sweet read. I enjoyed the broader setting of the book – in terms of the village and the community – so much that I think I will check out some more of Katie Ginger’s stories set in Meadow Bank (I do want to know what happens to Nick and Bella next!), and I wouldn’t be surprised if I find myself falling a little bit in love with the village and the people living there. I have also heard great things about Katie’s previous Christmas books (I remember Sandy Barker recommending them last year!) and I’m quite keen to check some out (I mean, how cute does Winter Wishes at Swallowtail Bay sound?! )

xo Bron
***

The Perfect Christmas Gift by Katie Ginger
Out now from HQ Digital.
Source: Free ecopy kindly provided by HQ Digital via Netgalley (thank you!). All views are my own
Format: ebook

The Perfect Christmas Gift on Goodreads.
Find Katie Ginger online here.

Want more Christmassy content? Check out some of my previous posts here.